The present invention relates to a speaker identification system for identifying by voice whether a speaker is authorized to make a decision on a subject wherein a prospective speakers' voices are previously registered with respective identification codes. The present invention also relates to a recording medium for use in the speaker identification system.
Various proposals have been made for an electronic system to make settlement by circulating an electronic document to plural managers for their approval via computers connected by a network. An electronic settlement system is an improvement over a conventional system of obtaining approval by circulating a sheet of paper through plural supervisors. Settlement is the system of identifying by voice whether a decision maker is authorized with respect to a particular subject. Whether such an electronic settlement system comes to success or not depends largely on the reliability and operability of the system, and improvement of such system is desired for its effective operation.
In the conventional electronic settlement system, the person desiring to make settlement, i.e. the settling person, starts up a computer, and at first inputs a personal ID code and password with a keyboard or the like. When the inputted ID code and password are genuine, the system accepts them and allows the operator to proceed to the next step.
The person making settlement next displays a document to be settled on a screen with a keyboard or a mouse, selects the contents as to the approval or rejection, and pushes a specified key so as to input the result on confirmation. As a result, the illustration of the seal registered in advance is displayed on the related settlement column.
In such conventional electronic settlement system, a password supports the reliability of the system and determines whether the settling party is the genuine person or not, i.e. whether the principal has really made settlement by his own will or not. Therefore, as far as the password performs the original function, reliability can be secured.
However, it can sufficiently occur in daily practice that the password is stolen or unduly used, and in this respect the reliability of the electronic settlement system leaves a question.
Moreover, due to the sophistication of the operations of a keyboard or mouse for actuating the electronic settlement system, including the inputs of ID code and password, the system is less easily usable for those who are not accustomed to the operation of the electronic apparatuses and the system is apt to be averted.
There is also proposed a system to substitute voice for the keyboard or mouse operation for identification (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-310663(1990)).
In this system, it may be conceivable that, in order to identify whether the settling person is genuine or not, the voice of the settling person is registered in advance. The system then collates the voiceprints of the inputted voice and the registered voice in making settlement. However, even in the case of carrying out such voiceprint collation, there can be a case for a third person to record by stealth the voice of the settling person and reproduce it so as to make an illegal settlement. Therefore, the reliability of the system is still not sufficient.